This invention relates to a process of making a flip chip, and more particularly to a process involving a unique passivation and planarization process for making a flip chip.
A flip chip microelectronic assembly includes a direct electrical connection of a face down (that is, xe2x80x9cflippedxe2x80x9d) electronic components onto substrates, such as ceramic substrates, circuit boards, or carriers using conductive bump bond pads of the chip. Flip chip technology is quickly replacing older wire bonding technology that uses face up chips with the wire connected to each pad on the chip.
The flip chip components used in flip chip microelectronic assemblies are predominantly semiconductor devices, however, components such as passive filters, detector arrays, and MEM devices are also being used in flip chip form. Flip chips are also known as xe2x80x9cdirect chip attachxe2x80x9d because the chip is directly attached to the substrate, board, or carrier by the conductive bumps.
The use of flip chip packaging has dramatically grown as a result of the flip chips advantages in size, performance, flexibility, reliability, and cost over other packaging methods and from the widening availability of flip chip materials, equipment and services. In some cases, the elimination of old technology packages and bond wires may reduce the substrate or board area needed to secure the device by up to 25 percent, and may require far less height. Further, the weight of the flip chips can be less than 5 percent of the old technology packaging devices.
Flip chips are advantageous because of their high-speed electrical performance when compared to other assembly methods. Eliminating bond wires reduces the delay in inductance and capacitance of the connection, and substantially shortens the current path resulting in a high speed off-chip interconnection.
Flip chips also provide the greatest input/output connection flexibility. Wire bond connections are generally limited to the perimeter of the chip or die, driving the die sizes up as a number of connections have increased over the years. Flip chip connections can use the whole area of the die, accommodating many more connections on a smaller die. Further, flip chips can be stacked in three-D geometries over other flip chips or other components.
Flip chips also provide the most rugged mechanical interconnection. Flip chips when underfilled with an adhesive such as an epoxy, can withstand the most rugged durability testing. In addition to providing the most rugged mechanical interconnection, flip chips can be the low cost interconnection for high-volume automated production.
The bumps on the flip chip assembly serve several functions. The bumps provide an electrical connective path from the chip (or die) to the substrate on which the chip is mounted. A thermally conductive path is also provided by the bumps to carry heat from the chip to the substrate. The bumps also provide part of mechanical mounting of the chip to the substrate. A spacer is provided by the bumps that prevents electrical contact between the chip and the substrate connectors. Finally, the bump acts as a short lead to relieve mechanical strain between the chip and the substrate.
Despite all of these advantages, these microelectronic assemblies are very delicate structures, the design of which and the manufacturing of create difficult and unique technical problems. Continuous efforts by those working in the art are being undertaken to improve the performance, reliability and useful life of microelectronic assemblies, particularly those using flip chips. More particularly, many problems needed to be solved, and improvements made in the process steps of making flip chips.
Some of the difficulties associated with accurately and reliably placing solder bumps on a wafer stem from the wafer fabrication processes. Wafer fabrication involves film deposition and growth processes, followed by repeated patterning to form device and interconnection structures. Advance integrated circuits require multiple levels of metallization, sometimes eight or more layers with each metal layer separated by in interlayer dielectric. As a result of multilevel interconnect wiring and device structures at different locations within the wafer, a number of different steps are created in the different layers. Wafer topography describes the nonplanar surface of the wafer layers, produced during the wafer manufacturing processes. Wafer topography becomes more pronounced with each additional layer. Acceptable step coverage and gap-fill are critical for chip yield and long-term reliability.
Higher chip packing density demands have resulted in increased topography of wafers. The desire for multilevel metal technology in integrated chip design is compounded by the ever present need to decrease the device size and interconnection dimensions. Surface topography in many advanced integrated circuits have deep steps and higher aspect ratios for gaps, making step coverage and gap fill much more difficult. A major negative consequence of topography is a loss of line width control during photolithography. Photoresist thickness variations due to topography inhibit submicron photolithography. It is also much more difficult to pattern nonuniform photoresist thickness over etched steps. Some of these factors greatly impact the ability to effectively and reliably place bumps on a wafer.
Planarization is one method of addressing or overcoming the negative impact of topography created in the multilevel wafer fabrication process. A planarized wafer has a flat surface with minimal layer thickness variation, that is, minimal topography on each layer. Filling in low features or removing high features are two ways to planarize a wafer surface. Planarizing the wafer surface is critical for follow-on process steps such as lithography and can actually serve to increase device yield by removing undesirable foreign material on the wafer surface during the actual planarization process.
In general, there are four different types of wafer planarization. In smoothing planarization, step height corners are rounded and side walls sloped, but the height is not significantly reduced. In partial planarization, the step corners are also rounded and side walls sloped, plus a local reduction in step height is achieved. In local planarization, small gaps (1-10 micrometers) are completely filled on local areas within the die, but the total step height across the wafer is not significantly reduced. In global planarization, local planarization is achieved plus significant reduction in the total step height across entire wafer surface is accomplished. This is also referred to as uniformity.
There have been three traditional methods of wafer planarization including: etchback, glass reflow, and spin on films. A topography created by surface features can be smoothed by applying a thick layer of a dielectric or other material followed by the application of the sacrificial layer of planarization material, such as a photoresist or spin on glass. The sacrificial material fills voids and low spots on the surface. Etching of the sacrificial layer is usually done by a dry etch to smooth the surface features and remove high features at a faster rate than lower features. This processes known as etchback planarization. The etching is continued until the dielectric reaches a final thickness, with the planarizing material still filling the low areas. There are different variations of etchback planarization depending on the features and metal layers used. Etchback planarization is a local planarization of topography that smooths the surface over closely spaced steps. However, etchback does not provide global planarization.
Borophosphosilicate glass (BPGS) and other doped oxides have been used for interlayer dielectric applications, and are often deposited with atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition. Glass reflow is the heating of a doped oxide to cause the material to flow at elevated temperatures. For example, borophosphosilicate glass annealed in a high temperature furnace at about 850xc2x0 C. for 30 minutes in nitrogen causes the borophosphosilicate glass to flow. This results in the borophosphosilicate glass flowing at angles of about 20xc2x0 over step coverage. The flow property can be used to achieve conformality in step coverage or gap fill and results in some measure of partial planarization around the features. Borophosphosilicate glass reflow for conformality over features attains partial planarization.
Spin on films is the application of different types of liquid materials on wafer surfaces and spinning the material to achieve planarization. This is used primarily for interlayer dielectric. Centrifugal forces are used to spin the material to fill in low features and attain a smoothing effect over topography. The planarizing capability of the spin on solution depends on a variety of factors such as the chemical composition of the solute, molecular weight, and viscosity. Typically spin on films have been either organic or inorganic, including photoresist, spin on glass, and a variety of types of resins. Spin on glass has different formulations such as 80 percent solvent and 20 percent silicon dioxide, or inorganic spin on resin formulation that includes polysiloxane. A bake step after spinning evaporates solvents and leaves oxide to fill in low-lying areas. An oxide layer is deposited by chemical vapor oxidation to further fill in gaps in the topography. However, these traditional planarization methods have been limited in their ability to achieve global planarization for multilevel semiconductor technologies.
More recently, chemical mechanical planarization has gained wide popularity in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Chemical mechanical planarization is a global surface planarization method. The method planarizes the surface of the wafer by relative motion between the wafer and a polishing pad with the use of a slurry and applied pressure between the wafer and polishing pad. Those skilled in the art often refer to the chemical mechanical planarizing tool has a polisher. Typically, a wafer is positioned in a wafer holder or carrier, and pressed against a polishing pad which is held on the surface known as platen. Most polishers use either rotary or orbital motion, and in some cases the platen is powered and moves or rotates, while in other cases the wafer carrier is powered. Chemical mechanical planarization achieves wafer planarity by removing high features on the surface more quickly than it removes low features. Chemical mechanical planarization method can polish both dielectric and metal layers and multilayer metalization interconnect structures when the appropriate slurry and pad are utilized.
Planarity and uniformity are two terms used to express the effectiveness of the chemical mechanical planarization method. Planarity describes surface topography variations for wafer distances ranging from micrometers to millimeters. Uniformity is measured over millimeters or centimeters and represents a film thickness variation across entire wafer. As such, a wafer can be planar but nonuniform or uniform but nonplanar. For example, two specific regions on wafer could be planarized very flat but within each wafer surface region planarized to a different thickness.
The chemical mechanical planarization method uses two mechanisms to planarize the wafer surface: (1) a chemical reaction between the slurry and the wafer surface layer forms a layer that is relatively easy to remove, and (2) the reacted surface layer is mechanically removed by the slurry""s abrasive components and the applied pressure and velocity of the polishing pad. Thus the technique uses both chemical reaction and mechanical action to planarize the wafer. The use of the slurry avoids damage to the wafer surface such as gouges and scratches that might occur with a purely mechanical process.
Oxide polish was one of the first chemical mechanical planarization processes used in the semiconductor wafer fabrication industry. Oxide polishing is used typically to planarizes deposited interlayer dielectrics between metal layers to achieve global planarity. In a basic slurry, the water in the slurry reacts with the oxide to form a hydroxyl bond. This is referred to as surface hydration. Surface hydration of the oxide decreases its hardness, mechanical strength and chemical durability. Furthermore, during the chemical mechanical planarization process the wafer surface is heated due to friction created during the polishing which warms the hydrated surface making it softer.
The slurry used in the chemical mechanical planarization process is a mixture of fine abrasive particles and chemicals that are used to remove specific materials from the wafer surface during chemical mechanical planarization. The slurry is sometimes dispensed through a slurry dispensing nozzle onto the platen. Precise slurry mixing and consistent batch blends are critical to achieve the necessary repeatability from wafer to wafer, and from day-to-day. It is also important for the slurry to be uniformly dispersed across wafer surface during the process. One common type of slurry is the oxide slurry which includes oxide dielectrics such as ultrafine silica colloidal particles in an alkaline medium of aqueous potassium hydroxide or ammonium hydroxide.
Recently, benzocyclobutene has been used as a passivation and planarization material. Benzocyclobutene is often selected due to its low curing temperature, rapid thermal curing, low water absorption, compatibility with copper and good adhesion properties. Further, benzocyclobutene is relatively environmentally friendly because there are no byproducts other than water that are created during the curing process. Benzocyclobutene material has been used with copper interconnect semiconductor devices and sub 0.25 micron devices due to its low dielectric constant (K). When utilized for making a flip chip, holes are opened in the benzocyclobutene to an underlying contact pad such as aluminum or copper. Thereafter, an under bump metallurgy is deposited onto the contact pad and over a portion of the benzocyclobutene. Finally, solder is deposited onto the under bump metallurgy and reflown to form a solder ball. However, it is difficult to control the deposition of the under bump metallurgy onto the benzocyclobutene layer.
Thus it would be desirable to provide a new passivation and planarization method which allowed for accurate and controllable deposition of the under bump metallurgy followed by subsequent deposit of a contact material such as solder onto the under bump metallurgy. The present invention overcomes deficiencies in the prior art, and provides advantages over and alternatives to the prior art.
One embodiment of the present invention includes a method including the step of providing a semiconductor wafer having at least one contact pad thereon. A passivation blanket is deposited on the semiconductor wafer and contact pad to provide a passivated wafer. The passivated wafer undergoes chemical mechanical planarization. Holes are opened in the planarized wafer down to the contact pads. An under bump metallurgy is deposited onto the contact pads and a contact material is deposited onto the under bump metallurgy.
Another embodiment of the invention includes in method of providing a semiconductor wafer having at least one contact pad thereon. A passivation blanket is deposited onto the semiconductor wafer and contact pads. The step of depositing the passivation blanket includes depositing a plurality of layers of material including a final layer of silicon dioxide to provide a passivated wafer. The passivated wafer is chemical mechanical planarized. Holes are opened in the passivated wafer down to the contact pads. An under bump metallurgy is deposited onto the contact pads and a contact material is deposited onto the under bump metallurgy.
In another embodiment of the invention, the contact material includes solder.
Another embodiment of the invention includes the step of reflowing the solder to provide a solder bump.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the contact material is at least one selected from the group consisting of gold, copper, aluminum, nickel, and solder.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the final layer consists essentially of silicon dioxide.
In another embodiment of the present invention the final layer of silicon dioxide is deposited by plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the step of depositing a plurality of layers of materials includes depositing a silicon nitride layer.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the step of depositing a plurality of layers of materials includes depositing a silicon oxynitride layer.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the step of depositing a passivation blanket includes depositing a first layer including silicon dioxide over the semiconductor wafer and contact pad, depositing a second layer over the first layer, and depositing a third layer including silicon dioxide over the second layer.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the second layer includes silicon nitride.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the first and second layers are deposited by high-density chemical vapor deposition and the third layer is deposited by plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition.
In another embodiment of the present invention the step of chemical mechanical planarizing the passivated wafer includes globally planarizing the passivation wafer.
In another embodiment of the present invention the step of chemical mechanical planarizing the passivation wafer includes the step of applying pressure to the passivated wafer using a polishing pad in the presence of an oxide slurry.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the oxide slurry includes ultrafine silica colloidal particles in an alkaline medium of aqueous potassium hydroxide or ammonium hydroxide.
In another embodiment of the present invention the step of opening holes in the planarized wafer down to the contact pads includes etching the passivation blanket on the semiconductor wafer.
Another embodiment of the present invention includes a method of providing a semiconductor wafer and forming at least one contact pad on the semiconductor wafer. A first layer of silicon dioxide is deposited over the silicon wafer and the contact pad. A layer of silicon nitride is deposited over the first layer of silicon dioxide. A second layer of silicon dioxide is deposited over the layer silicon nitride. The semiconductor wafer, including at least the second layer of silicon dioxide, is planarized using an oxide chemical mechanical planarization step. A hole is opened in the second layer of silicon dioxide, layer of silicon nitride, and first layer of silicon dioxide down to the contact pad on the semiconductor wafer. An under bump metallurgy is deposited onto the contact pad and solder deposited onto the under bump metallurgy.
Another embodiment of the present invention further includes the step of depositing the under bump metallurgy onto a portion of the second layer of silicon dioxide.
In another embodiment of the present invention the step of depositing solder includes stencil printing solder onto the under bump metallurgy.
Another embodiment of the present invention further includes the step of reflowing the solder to form a solder bump on the semiconductor wafer.
Another embodiment of the present invention includes the step of providing a semiconductor wafer having at least one contact pad. A passivation blanket is deposited over the semiconductor wafer and contact pad, and wherein the step of depositing the passivation blanket includes depositing a plurality of layers of materials including a final layer including silicon dioxide to provide a passivated wafer. The passivated wafer is chemical mechanical planarized. A hole is opened in the planarized wafer down to the contact pad. A contact material is deposited over the contact pad.
Another embodiment of the invention includes a method of providing a semiconductor wafer having at least two metal interconnect layers and a benzocyclobutene based dielectric material between the two metal interconnect layers, and having at least one contact pad. The passivation blanket is deposited over the semiconductor device and the contact pad and the step of depositing a passivation blanket includes depositing a plurality of layers of material including a final layer comprising silicon dioxide to provide a passivated wafer. The passivated wafer is chemical mechanical planarized. Holes are opened in the planarized wafer down to the contact pad. An under bump metallurgy is deposited onto the contact pad, and a contact material is deposited onto the under bump metallurgy.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following brief description of the drawings, detailed description of the preferred embodiments, and appended claims and drawings.